The annual event of the Quebec Food Protection Association (AQIA) is to be held in Quebec City from 5-6 October 2016. This year’s symposium will be part of the biannual event BENEFIQ2016, the rendez-vous for health ingredients, organized by Institute of Nutrition and Functional Food (INAF) of Université Laval, Québec, Canada.

It is still possible to register and participate in the event either via the BENEFIQ2016 website or through the AQIA Website

The Symposium’s Program is attached and is covering the broad theme: “Innovation in Response to Current and Emerging Food Safety Issues”

We have the privilege of welcoming Dr. Martine Dubuc, Vice President Science Branch of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Chief Food Safety Officer for Canada, who will be giving the keynote lecture and opening officially the 2016 AQIA Symposium.

We look forward to meeting you on the 5-6 October 2016 in Quebec City, QC. Canada.

This workshop was an opportunity to meet and engage with members of the Science and Technology Community of Argentina: colleagues from Academia, the food regulatory community and industry groups.

Discussions and presentations addressed current and future trends of food production in Argentina, Latin America and Worldwide, challenges to develop sound and robust regulatory mechanisms, science and risk based regulations, the imperative to use the regulatory instrument after careful consideration of instrument of choice analysis, where regulation was found to be a possible effective mechanism to address the risk. Discussions covered the European food labeling requirements, trends in nutrition and allergen labelling as well as front of pack labeling.

We were fortunate to have the contribution of Dr. Pamela Byrne, CEO of the Food Safety Authority of the Republic of Ireland, Judith Meech, Secretary General of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) and the Senior Leadership of the Argentinean Association of Food Science and Technology (AATA), in particular Prof /Dr. Susanna Socolovsky.

A great discussion followed on good regulatory practices and on challenges and opportunities for the use labeling as a risk management and sanitary measure.

I feel privileged to contribute to the upcoming conference organized by IFA/Tulln – BOKU under the leadership of Professor Rudolf Krska, and related to Innovation in Food and Feed Safety – Education, Risk Analysis and Novel Technologies. This event is held on April 5th, 2016 in Tulln Austria.

This is a model for open scientific events to share the latest developments and to introduce a number of multi-year initiatives in research and capacity development in food safety and quality. In particular, the project MyToolBox, aiming to foster a set of tools to assess and mitigate risks associated with Mycotoxins in food, will be introduced, as a major EU food safety funded initiative with global outreach.

It is also our opportunity at the Department of Food Science (Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science) of University Laval, Québec, QC (Canada) and at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, to engage with and learn from peer institutions with the aim to foster collaborations in our areas of development: food risk analysis and competency development domestically and internationally.

Access to clean water and clean air is a fundamental human right. Similarly, access to safe food is another necessity. Food safety is a condition for food availability and therefore for food security. Beyond the clear public health benefits expected as a result of compliance with food safety requirements, enhanced food safety is a prerequisite to consumer confidence and therefore to market access. Consumers around the world demand access to safe food and are increasingly aware of and sensitive to existing and emerging food safety risks.

Food and food products are also amongst the most traded commodities domestically and internationally. Safety and availability of food products is therefore a condition for and a demonstration of economic development and prosperity. Innovation in the food and agri-food sector, the development of trends aiming to enhance the sustainability of food production, to decrease its environmental impacts and its energy consumption requirements are also interrelated with food safety, food security, food quality and consumer concerns.

Having the 2015 Universal Exhibition currently hosted by the city of Milan, Italy, fully dedicated to the theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life offers the unique opportunity for a platform of dialogue, exchange, and stronger leadership in identifying and analyzing trends and emerging issues, in sharing best practices and in promoting collaboration and partnership to address challenges in food safety, food security and sustainability and to support research and innovation in the food and agri-food sector.

The opportunity to hold a World Food Forum scheduled for September 22-23, part of Milan Expo 2015 is visionary in many respects. This platform offers to convene national and international food policy makers, food regulators, international and development organizations, food business leaders, the Finance, Science, Research and Innovation community, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It offers to become a permanent platform for dialogue amongst leaders of the food sector to promote partnerships and collaboration. For a number of actions that address food safety, food security and sustainability, the mobilization of all sectors (public, private, academia, NGOs) and the creation of partnership are key to success. In following the principle that dialogue is a prerequisite to multi-sectorial action in response to multi-faceted challenges, I am hopeful that this new Forum will:

enable and stimulate strategic engagement, policy discussions and dialogue on challenges and opportunities of the food sector, with a particular focus on sharing best practices and lessons learnt from partnership initiatives in food safety, food security and sustainability, as well as food research and innovation

promote leadership in the development of robust partnerships, concerted action and more investments to address challenges in food safety, security, sustainability and innovation.

Food is such an important determinant of human health and human prosperity that we owe it to ourselves to make this Forum a successful platform for such cooperation.

Food Allergen Management, Emerging Issues and Perspectives is the theme chosen this year for the annual meeting of the Association Québecoise pour l’innocuité alimentaire.

This meeting is to be held in Quebec City, QC, Canada on Sept 30-Oct 1st, 2015.

Take note of key speakers from Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia. Various topics will be discussed dealing with the the public health impacts of food allergens, food allergen management by the food industry, regulatory management of this issue, emerging issues of allergen thresholds and their possible use in risk management considerations, as well as food allergen analytical method development and applications in food allergen control by the food processing sector.

The organizers are still looking for sponsors for this event, so feel free to contact: Andrée Lagacé at Andree.Lagace@fsaa.ulaval.ca or by phone at (418) 656-3951

More information on this event can be obtained though the AQIA Website.

Save the date for the launch of the World Food (Research and Innovation) Forum, a unique opportunity to engage with stakeholders representing academic, government, the food business community and international organizations on issues related to food safety, security and sustainability.
Creating a forum for dialogue, engagement and forward thinking:

Aiming for a safer, more abundant and sustainable food supply for all.

The June 2015 Issue of the AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Communities) Food Allergen Community was made available yesterday.

You can read about the latest updates on food allergen regulatory provisions internationally, some reports on the latest events organized or attended by Community members as well as about some of the latest publications and tools related to food allergen management, recently made available.

The Program of the Food Allergen session at the upcoming (2015) AOAC annual meeting is also made available.

Thanks to the AOAC Food Allergen Community Co-chairs and to the Editorial team for keeping up apprised of the latest developments.